Yes, It Does Make You Wonder

In reading great-grandmother's diaries, it is puzzling to learn that throughout the 1940s they spent quite a bit of time visiting at the San Gabriel Mission. Quite often it is reported that "Pop" has gone to the San Gabriel Mission and she occasionally goes there with him but often times not. It does make you wonder why they would spend that much time visiting what is probably an interesting historical destination and museum and lovely gardens to walk around maybe 4-5 miles from their house in Pasadena for those who are into that kind of thing but in terms of church not really a place for Pentecostal-Protestants like us to be frequenting every Sunday morning. I myself once walked around the grounds of San Juan Capistrano Mission and saw what is there for tourists to see but I have not returned there, having already satisfied any curiosity I might have had on that subject. Aficionados of California history know well that before California became a state there was a series of Catholic missions built up and down the West Coast even as far north as San Francisco and these are at present frequently visited by tourists and history buffs. The San Gabriel Mission is now staffed by the Claretians, I see from their website, but in early centuries it was often the Franciscans who were involved in Christianizing the native populations before the area was flooded with white people who brought their Protestant churches with them. Ok, whatever. It does make you wonder why some people imagine that we were ever a Catholic family. Wasn't everyone's family Catholic back in the Middle Ages? But why would we want to regress to a former state of ignorance when we have learned better now? You cannot stop the progress of history like you cannot stop the ocean from eroding the beach at Oceanside. Things will always change. It is more about how you change rather than whether there will be change. Change is inevitable.